Dork Note: I looked on-line and no one is claiming responsibility for this design. Mike Sekowsky drew the issue, but that doesn't necessarily mean he came up with it.

Does anyone know exactly who designed this Robin Mismatch Costume?Dork Note:Thomas Perkins did the below design and it speaks volumes to an artist's ability to take something truly blah and still make it cool - I applaud you!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

History: Wonderbug is a segment of the first and second season of the American television series The Krofft Supershow, from 1976 to 1978. It was shot in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The show was rerun as part of ABC's Sunday morning series.

Plot: Wonderbug's alter ego "Schlepcar" (so named due to its personalized California license plate "SCHLEP") was an old, beat up, conglomeration of several junked cars that looked like a rusty dune buggy. Like Herbie of Disney movie fame, Schlepcar was alive and could drive itself, and could also talk in a mumbling voice. It was found in a junk yard by teenagers Barry Buntrock (David Levy), C.C. McNamara (John-Anthony Bailey) and Susan Talbot (Carol Anne Seflinger). Schlepcar transformed into the shiny metal-flake orange Wonderbug when a magic horn was sounded. In his Wonderbug identity, Schlepcar had the power of flight and was able to help the three teens capture crooks and prevent wrongdoing.

Super-Squirrel: a squirrel; analog of Superman. Super-Squirrel has a vast array of Chiptonian superpowers, including flight, super vision, and super strength. His main weakness was to chiptonite. Super-Squirrel lived in the city of Muttropolis. Super-Squirrel has a crush on Wonder Wabbit, and displays jealousy when she and Captain Carrot flirt with each other. Unlike Superman, Super-Squirrel comes off as somewhat pompous and self-aggrandizing, in contrast to the Man of Steel's more amiable personality.

Batmouse: a mouse; analog of Batman. Batmouse used a wide array of gadgets in his fight against his various foes, often with the aid of his sidekick, Boyd the Robin Wonder (a robin; analog of Batman's sidekick, Robin).

Wonder Wabbit: a rabbit; analog of Wonder Woman. Wonder Wabbit made use of her Animalzon superpowers and tools in fighting crime, including super strength, invulnerable bracelets, a magic lasso, and a see-through robot airplane. Wonder Wabbit originally came from Parrot-Eyes Island.

Green Lambkin: a male lamb; analog of the Silver Age Green Lantern. Green Lambkin used his power ring in fighting crime; however, his ring had two weaknesses: a 24-hour charge limit (after which it had to be recharged) and a weakness against the color yellow. Green Lambkin was a member of the Green Lambkin Corps, and served the Goat-Guardians of the planet Uh-Oh.

The Crash: a turtle; analog of the Silver Age Flash. The Crash was gifted with the power of super speed. According to Captain Carrot #14, he was presumably inspired to become the Crash by reading comic books of (Earth-C's) the Terrific Whatzit as a youth, just as Barry Allen (the Flash of Earth-One) was inspired by reading comics of the adventures of Jay Garrick (the Flash of Earth-Two).

Green Sparrow: a sparrow; analog of Green Arrow.Stacked Canary: a canary; analog of Black Canary.Hawkmoose: a moose; analog of the Silver Age Hawkman.The Martian Anteater: an anteater from Mars (of the Earth-C-Minus universe); analog of the Martian Manhunter.The Item: an elephant; analog of the Silver Age Atom.Elong-Gator: an alligator; analog of the Elongated Man. Firestork: a stork; analog of Firestorm. Zap-Panda: a panda; analog of Zatanna.The Rat Tornado: a rat; analog of the Silver Age Red Tornado.

In 1980, as reported by Comics Feature #4, there was a X-Men and Legion of Superheroes one-shot in plan by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.

However, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter was not pleased that DC wanted the fourth company crossover to include the New Teen Titans, DC's best-selling title at the time, as he wanted the crossover to be the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes. This friction led to Shooter's decision to stall and cancel the JLA/Avengers project.

With the Teen Titans being a huge hit, it was decided to turn it into a Titans/X-Men crossover instead. Dave Cockrum decided to drop out of the project.

From Dave Cockrum's interview in The Legion Companion book:

"But there also originally was going to be a Legion/X-Men crossover, and I was to draw it.Then they decided ‘No, we'll make it a Teen Titans/X-Men crossover,’ and that's the one that Walt Simonson drew.They figured that the Teen Titans were more commercial."

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Animated History: A cross between Shazam and Star Wars, Marvel created a pilot for an animated TV series based around him. However, the show was never picked up. On October 24, 1992, this pilot aired as a special on Fox Kids.

Comic History: Despite scripts by Stan Lee and art by Jim Mooney, Mike Zeck and Nestor Redondo, his comic book was published in 1989 and only lasted only two issues.

Plot: Solarman is teenager Benjamin Tucker, who dreams of becoming an artist for Marvel Comics even though his Los Angeles gym-owner father wants him to become a jock. A blue-skinned alien cyborg warlord named Commander Gormagga Kraal tried to use his technology to drain the energy from Earth's sun, but his white-bearded head scientist, Sha-han, refused and fled to Earth with Kraal's Circlet of Power, which he gave to Ben along with a helpful little robot the boy, for obvious reasons, dubs Beepie. Thereafter, Ben could expose the Circlet (which is worn on his wrist like a bracelet and cannot be removed) to sunlight and transform into the golden-haired adult Solarman who possesses superhuman strength, is capable of super-sonic flight and survival in deep space and can control light, heat and other forms of energy, although his weakness is that his powers would fade without constant exposure to sunlight, causing him to revert to his powerless teenage form.Fun Fact: Credited creator David Oliphant had actually published three digest-sized issues of a more educationally-oriented version of Solarman back in 1979 under the Pendulum Illustrated imprint. This Solarman was an alien "Solarite" named Davos from a land inside the Sun called "Coresun" who came to Earth with his stiff-legged android servant Arman and used his superior abilities to become a baseball player while preaching the virtues of solar energy. In addition to the tremendous strength granted to him by Earth's lower gravity, his Solarcell Medallion, which also allowed him to recharge his life energy via exposure to sunlight, made him able to fly through the air in a giant fireball and shoot flames from his eyes.

Dork Note: Join the Solarman Collectors Club! I wonder how many kids did and if any of them still have their Solarman Collector Club Poster etc.

Private Jonathan "Junior" Juniper — In an unusual and daring move for comics at the time, Junior was killed in action after a few issues (#4, Nov. 1963). As one comics historian wrote in 1999, "Today that's no big deal but in 1963, comics heroes simply didn't die; not permanently, anyway. Suddenly, with the death of 'Junior' Juniper, the series acquired some real cachet. It now played like a true-life war drama where people got killed and never came back. You wondered who would be next."

Private Eric Koenig - A defector from Nazi Germany who joined the squad in issue #27 (Feb. 1966).